Much more than street sweeping

Well, it’s not a live sewer. We’re talking about the one at the Department of Public Works’ operations yard. That sewer, which is used for training purposes, is one of several attractions the department is offering up during “National Public Works Week.”

The Chronicle

Now that’s a sewer.

Didn’t know there was such a thing as National Public Works Week? Where have you been since the 1960s? (Actually, it took Insider by surprise, too.)

But there really is a week set aside each year for the guys and gals who repair sewers, steam clean city plazas at 2 a.m. and design buildings to get their due and rub elbows with the public.

DPW will host an open house on Thursday from 9 a.m. to noon at its facility at 2323 Cesar Chavez St., where the public can check out carpentry and other tradecraft workshops and heavy equipment demonstrations.

DPW’s urban forestry crew are also going to help school kids build planter boxers they can take home to grow drought-tolerant plants.

Then, of course, there is the brick sewer mock-up, which department spokesman Christine Falvey assures us won’t have any rats or cockroaches.

That’s all well and good for the visitors, but what kind of training is that?